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Dozens of players have been harassed by authorities in Belarus since 2020. UEFA didn’t react, while allowing EURO 2024 games to be broadcast by state propaganda media.
UEFA’s flagship event, broadcast by Lukashenko’s propaganda media
When Ukraine’s national football team failed to qualify to the EURO-2024 knock out rounds, it was a happy day for Aleksandr Lukashenko’s henchmen Belarus’ state media, as they would no longer have to think of an excuse for not broadcasting one of the 1/8 finals. Up to that point, Ukraine’s games in the EURO were not broadcasted, and no one had bothered to explain why. “Tomorrow we expect to see two interesting games” – the presenter at STV channel said the day before the first games of E and D groups. But there were 3 matches played in that day, including the spectacular clash of Ukraine against Romania, which was not shown to the football fans in Belarus. Nor were Ukraine’s two other games at the Euro-2024.
Despite protests and public appeals from Belarusian politicians and civil society, the right to broadcast the main football event of this summer was awarded by UEFA to the notorious propagandist channels of Belarus and Russia. In Belarus, those were STV and RTR-Belarus. The latter is a common project of STV and All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company – the main source of Russian propaganda both inside and outside the country.
For example, the most notorious propaganda program, inciting ethnic hatred and openly calling for mass murders of the Lukashenko and Putin regimes opponents, is produced and transmitted by STV. It is called “Secret springs of politics”, presented by Grigory Azarenok, and it has featured calls for hanging, or this “address” to the members of the European Parliament: “But Borrell will not help, because he will be drowning in his own vomit and faeces, trying to collect his intestines, which will be cut out by exploding cluster bombs. You are not humans, you are spawns! You will die in terrible agony! You will squeal loudly like pigs, and no one will hear you, no one ever. The immigrants will rape your corpses!”
YouTube and Telegram deleted the channels with these programs and Azarenok’s statements because of hate speech. But it is ok for UEFA to have one of its main events in such a company.
However, there’s more than UEFA being oblivious to the controversies regarding those televisions. The Association has largely ignored the fact that football in Belarus has been under pressure for years, with players and officials being harassed, arrested and sometimes sentenced to prison. It all started after tens of thousands of Belarusians took to the streets, in august 2020, to protest the massive electoral fraud that gave dictator Aleksandr Lukashenko a new term as president of the country.
Footballers in prison for supporting democratic changes
On August 12, the striker of BATE – the most successful Belarusian football club in the modern history – Anton Saroka (formerly playing for Belgian team of “Lokeren”) was arrested for participation in peaceful protests and spent 7 days in prison for that. Two days later, against the background of police brutality and mass repression, the General Director of BATE Mikhail Zaleusky, who previously served in the police, threw away his uniform and posted video of that on Instagram, commenting the situation in the following way: “There are no tears to look at the arbitrariness of batons and the lawlessness of force. I’m a former officer, and now I’m extremely ashamed. Please stop for the sake of peace. Don’t you really feel sorry for either women or children? When you take the oath, remember the words, the courage of your fathers, the valour of your grandfathers. There are no enemies here, there are neighbours, wives and friends around. Think about who you are pointing the club at. You cannot step over ordinary people”. After that he was made to resign his position at BATE and leave the country.
On August 30, 2020, the midfielders of “Krumkačy” football club (playing in the second division of Belarus at that time) Siarhei Kazeka and Pavel Rasolka were detained by the police when they returned home from a training session. They were brutally beaten and then accused of attacking police officers. The next day they were let out, but Kazeka was so severely beaten that his vertebrae were broken and kidneys were damaged. Doctors prescribed him bed rest for four weeks. The footballer was able to return to the field only after 2.5 months.
Then there’s the story of Aliaksandr Ivulin, who was sentenced to two years in prison for participating in peaceful protests and telling the stories of sportsmen supporting democratic changes in Belarus. Ivulin is a journalist working for the most popular sports media in Eastern Europe called “Tribuna”. When he was arrested on June 3, 2021, he was also a football player of “Krumkačy” football club, where he produced a reality show called “Will Sasha come out?” about the life of the team, training with it and striving to become a professional player. While Ivulin was in prison, in Poland local Belarusian diaspora organised an amateur football team called “Ivulin Team” to play in local competitions and created a special annual tournament called “Ivulin Cup” among Belarusians. Ivulin spent his whole term in prison and after being let out was lucky to leave the country in order to continue his work in sports journalism.
Three choices: going to jail, leaving the country, or publicly apologizing to the regime
On September 30, 2022, the former goalkeeper of Belarus national team and “Steaua” Bucharest Vasil Khamutouski was arrested in Minsk, where he came from Ukraine for medical treatment. At that time he was a goalkeeper coach of Ukrainian Football club “Lviv”. He was accused of taking part in peaceful protests against the Lukashenko regime in 2020 and sentenced to two years of house arrest. From the very start of protests and repression Khamutouski has never been silent. He appealed to the regime officials to stop repression against the sportsmen and openly condemned Russian invasion of Ukraine. Belarusian human rights defenders said he was a political prisoner. However, after that, a video was posted on Khamutouski’s Instagram account in which he criticized human rights activists and asked not to include him in the list of political prisoners. No one took the video seriously, as Lukashenko’s security services are infamous for forcing prisoners to record these type of videos.
On June 23, 2023, the office staff of “Nioman” football club in the city of Hrodna saw something unprecedented – riot police came to the club base to arrest “Nioman’s sports director. He was detained as a dangerous criminal: he was taken out of the club office handcuffed, and two security officials took him to the department, wringing his hands and lowering his head down. The reason was Kavalionak’s being subscribed to independent media, banned by the Lukashenko regime in Belarus. The next day Kavalionak was freed, but also fired from his position in the football club.
“Shame on you, Hrodna opportunists” – that’s how Belarusian forward of Polish “Stal” (Mielec) football club Illia Shkuryn commented on the arrest of Kavalionak. Shkuryn became second best forward in the Polish Ekstraklasa (the highest league) last season, having scored 16 goals. He is arguably the best Belarusian striker right now but isn’t included in the Belarus national football team. Why? On August 14, 2020, he posted on his Instagram account the picture of a man with the national white-red-white flag of Belarus and wrote the following: “I again knew about being included in the extended list of the national team from social networks, so I’m also writing my answer here. I refuse to represent the interests of the national team as long as Lukashenko’s regime is in power. Long live Belarus!”
After that, Uladzimir Bazanau, former colonel of artillery forces and head of Belarusian football federation at that moment, became personally interested in both bringing Shkurin back to Belarus and sending him to the army (in Belarus all men under 27 are subject to conscription). The Belarusian football federation tried to make CSKA Moscow, where Shkurin played in 2020, to exert pressure on the player to change his position but fortunately failed to do it. Since that time, the position of the striker never changed – he isn’t risking to come to Belarus in order not to repeat the fate of Khamutouski. But he is supporting Belarusian democratic initiatives and meeting with the fans abroad: people come from different countries to watch him playing and wish him good luck.
On September 12, 2020, a video featuring 93 players of almost all Belarusian football clubs appeared on the internet. It showed each of them saying “I am against violence” and was a reaction to the hardcore crackdown on peaceful protests on the streets of Belarusian cities. Eventually, all these players were included in the “black list”, created by the sports ministry of the regime. Many were prohibited to play in Belarus, as all the football clubs in the country are owned and controlled by the state. Some left the country, the others retired from football at all. But some of them returned to their career in Belarusian clubs. How did it happen? One could have taken part in the pro-regime events and apologized to the sports minister Siarhei Kavalchuk. After that one could have got a chance of being allowed to play football in Belarus again.
